I'll be flying out this afternoon and, after stops in Taipei and Bangkok, I'll arrive in Cambodia at about 9am. There I'll visit a sponsored school and the famous temples at Angkor Wat. (a.k.a. the ones they showed in Tomb Raider). Then, on Saturday, I'll go back to Bangkok, where I'll begin volunteering. After volunteering for a few weeks I'll be visiting other parts of Thailand, as well as Laos and Bali, before coming home on March 11. A special thanks to everyone who donated and supported the volunteering part of this trip, I really appreciate it. I'm going to try to keep this updated whenever I can find an internet cafe, and hopefully will be able to pos...

Don't worry about my title, I haven't become a serial killer. I landed in Cambodia safely after three exhausting days of flying... okay, I exaggerate a little, since it was only 24 hours if you count the time differences, but it was still exhausting. My first observation on the way into town from the airport was how the area was in contrast with itself. We passed shack after shack, and in the middle they'd plop a giant 4 star hotel. It was very strange. My own hotel is a small guest house and hardly 4 star, but very nice for $15/night. Anyway, after a morning to rest I set out with my guide to explore Siem Reap, which was once the capital of Cambodia. We s...

So, Cambodia is probably most famous for Angkor Wat, which is a Hindu temple and one of the new "7 wonders of the world". (Although to us non-Hindu and not-very-history-oriented Americans, Angkor Wat is most famous because it's where they filmed Tomb Raider.) The temples are very interesting-- three of them in particular. Angkor Wat itself is the biggest and most impressive. I can't begin to remember the names of the other two, but one has giant faces carved all over it, and the other has been overgrown with trees, the roots of which have grown in and through the stones and made the temple all wobbly. (This would be much better with pictures of course, but th...

Here's some of the pictures I took in Cambodia... I'm in Bangkok now and will try to write more tonight, but we're just about out the door to go see some of the city.  So far it's been mostly orientation for the volunteer program, so not a whole lot to tell anyway. [flickr]set:72157603885991528[/flickr] ...

In Cambodia, or Siem Reap anyway, motorcycles are EVERYwhere.  And they're very creative with them.  I saw motorcycles loaded with three grown men, a mom and 3 toddlers, firewood, pigs, 20+ chickens and everything else you can imagine.  And as if the overloading weren't enough, traffic laws seem to be pretty nonexistent, or at if they exist they're routinely ignored.  Lane markers in particular seem to be negotiable, and the only rule people seem to follow is that the biggest vehicle has the right of way, and they need to honk incessantly to warn everyone when they squeeze between the lanes of a two lane street. Cambodia is HOT.  Like, mix the heat from t...